the photo above is of my feet when i was sat in the space (clearly being distracted). the last three years have been the busiest of my life. i realised at the start of this year that i can't do another at the same rate. i like the start of the year because it is a space to reflect and rethink some patterns. but i know i need to rebalance my life in some way for the year ahead. here's a few things i am thinking about that hopefully will help

rhythm of life. jen and i have found developing a rhythm of life really helpful in the last couple of years. what i mean by this is that we have plotted on one side of paper what our yearly, monthly and weekly pattern looks like. we try and make it a natural rhythm with the seasons of the year. and have then added some things that we want to try and do that are energising - for example inviting people round for meals at least once a month, a termly day of silence, not working more than two weekends in a month, having a weekly meal where we linger at the table for the evening and share bread and wine... we then talk about this every month or so. it's not a heavy thing - it's light touch. and in some ways it doesn't matter what's on there - it just helps create a conversation about it.

retreat. since starting the cms pioneer training, we have asked students to take a retreat each year. well you can't do that without doing it yourself. this is now essential for me. this year i am booked in to an 8 day silent retreat which i am nervously looking forward to.

holiday/rest. the last couple of years i have not managed to take my quota of holiday from work. this is entirely my own doing. i intend to change that this year and have sat down with jen and already diaried things we will do which already feels good.

art. imagine a world without gigs, music, film, photography, festivals, poetry, books, exhibitions? whenever i look back over the year and thngs that have energised me art is always a big factor - both the enjoying and the creating. and yet it's easy to forget or not prioritise it.

stop doing some things. i have already shifted one thing in my life this yar and i have a list of others. i realised in converation with a friend that i am my own worst enemy here. i do things out of habit and because i can - some of those i smply need to let go of or let others do. so i will be working on those habits. part of the reason for stopping is that i want to carve out time for thinking and possibly studying a day a week if possible.

prayer. i need and want to pray but find it difficult like everyone else in the world! i am someone who likes change so need to keep it fresh. this year i am starting off by using a book that cost me one pence second hand finding god in all things exploring ignatian prayer along with prayer exercises from sadhana by anthony de mello (which you can also get for one pence), a book i have had for years. i intend to read them both slowly and linger with them trying out the exercises and prayer.

someone to reflect with. i am fortunate to have a great community grace that i journey and explore faith with. if you are not part of a community why not join one or start one? - if you are near ealing come and join us! i also have someone who i meet with 3/4 times a year for some intentional conversation about my life in relation to faith. this is a wonerful thing to have found.

so there's a few of my thoughts on what i am hoping will help me find space to think for the year ahead. i had originally started this post with the intention of reviewing two books. these are two very recent books on finding space to think and pray. i'll recommend them by way of an end to the post because if you are looking for a book to help you these might be ones to explore.

the first is less is more: spirituality for busy lives by brian draper. when this book arrived we had two people living with us and before i had had a chance to look at the book they had both picked it up and read it and loved it. it's a book that explores exactly what it says in the title. it's contemporary, practical and easy to read. the irony is that i was too busy to read it at the time!

the second is return to our senses by christine sine. she is a prolific blogger and creates lovely prayers and liturgies. spirituality is her thing. this is another very easy to read book with very practical ideas and suggestings for prayer using things like gardening or breathing.

both are the kind of books that would work best if read an practised slowly - even though they are both easy to read. they would also be good books to explore and try the various ideas with others - maybe a book for lent? and they are both cheap to buy which is always a plus.

there is a lot of momentum growing around a campaign to get friendslife insurance to pay up on nic hughes life insurance. he recently died of cancer. the guardian and others have picked up on it. nic's wife susie is on bbc fivelive today at 10:30am. you probably didn't know nic but if you have a sense of justice then go and sign the petition. it's a really good example of the quick influence that can spread via social media - i really hope friendslife will do the right thing and change their decision. my dad died of cancer and life insurance payout was such a massive help to my mum.

i really enjoyed tim and vanessa's wedding on saturday. they were so happy - it was wonderful! i took a few snaps (not many as i was too busy chatting) and this one captures the relaxed and joyful nature of the day. the procession out of the church was quite something - a choreographed dance out by the bridal party to a gospel tune.

tim and vanessa are members of moot in london. and it was also really exciting to see their dream of a café being realised as it's now installed. the café is called host - do call in if you are anywhere near mansion house tube - it's at st mary's aldermary. i really admire ian mobsby's patience, tenacity and vision - he has been dreaming of this for probably 15-20 years now! (it was great to have ian in at cms yesterday teaching a day as part of the pioneer training).

today was the first day of the new year on the cms pioneer mission leadership training. it's always so exciting to go round on the first morning and hear who people are and what they dream and aspire to pioneer in mission. some have already started, others have an idea, others just know they want to do something. this is our third year and i have loved both so far and i can tell i'm going to love this one. on top of what we have been doing we have an MA starting and our first intake of ordained pioneers which should keep us busy... i called this photo 'apsirational' - seemed to fit the mood...

"one of the greatest things i've ever seen" - that's how harry's show proper pop-up purple paper people was described on radio one ths afternoon and given a 5 star rating! who knows how but chris who picks out a show to review each day for scott mills landed at harry's venue and loved it (if you want to listen on iplayer it's about 1:23 in to the show). joel rang me as he was in the car and had radio one on at the time and was somewhat surprised to find harry being reviewed... the show is in a small basement at the royal oak so expect tomorrow to be packed!!!

[in case you were wondering the RGB for silver is 133, 136, 139 which is the colour of the letters here!]

i'm guessing the title of the post might have got some of you thinking i was blogging about the olympics and victoria pendleton but i wasn't .... but i might as well add in a WOW to teamGB's incredible cycling performances in the olympics now i have started thinking along these lines.

i have been glued to the cycling. after the road race and time trial the velodrome has been incredible - love the venue, love the sport, love teamGB, love the kit, love the ministry of marginal gains, love the giggling laura trott, the tearful fragile lightning quick victoria, the quietly brilliant jason kenny - to be honest all of them and the coaches and the commentary team! i suspect the rest of the world want to knock teamGB off their considerable perch right now and so they should... i honestly can't believe the medal haul.

yesterday though big congrats to anna meares who got her tactics spot on to psych out victoria with the mind games and physicality and i hope australia went nuts about it - she is a great cyclist and it meant a lot to her - that was obvious... though proud of victoria bowing out as the greatest woman track cyclist ever surely. chris hoy's ride was just awesome to finish things off. what am i going to do tonight now the cycling is over? oh yes i've got an anniversary to celebrate ;)

i made my way in to london with jen to watch the women's triathlon and we joined kev and sky draper (sky is a teamGB junior) and dean. this was my third free olympic event... i continued in the black and white photos vein and have added a few pics here. in this photo teamGB's helen jenkins is being dropped from the lead group and just couldn't pull it back. spirig went on to win decided by a photo finish...

it was soooooooooo exciting today to be out in teddington about 2.5k from the finish of the time trial to see bradley wiggins win gold and chris froome bronze medal - wow!!!! wiggo (as he is now known) winning on the track over the years, coverting to the road, winning the tour de france and now the time trial gold - i just can't believe it. he is now the british olympian with the most medals ever - again wow! it's also fantastic to have the olympics in london, to be able to get on the bike and watch this historic moment for free... i think i'm on a high...

it's also an absolute treat to be able to take some photos at something like this and i love the challenge of it - here's a black and white set (again). i may do a set in colour at some point...

it was great fun watching the men's road race at the london 2012 olympics. brilliant to be able to see some events free and up close (why would anyone buy a ticket for a road race???!!!). we were right at the top of box hill and a member of team gb was next to us with a walkie talkie and a notice board. each time the cyclists came round he held up a board with the time gap to the the lead group. as this gap came down gradually it seemd like the lead group would be caught and obviously the team felt confident as he wrote on the board - leave them out there!

well several things conspired to make this pretty bad advice. firstly because cav is such a great sprinter all the other teams seemed to have decided to just let team gb do all the work - with teams of 5 this was too big an ask and very strange tactics from countries who could have medalled in a bunch sprint (and pretty negative!). secondly another group got away to join the first and made the front group too strong. and thirdly it turns out team gb cyclists are human after all and just didn't have the legs to reel it back in. but it was great to see team gb, cav, brad, huge crowds and even the police in a great move high fiving the crowd from motorbikes as they whizzed by!

clearly it was a disappointing result from gb point of view but cav is still a hero and it was fantastic to see lizzie won silver medal today in the women's road race.

i have added a set of photos in black and white here. it's pretty hard getting photos of cycling in a packed crowd with the cyclists whizzing by but at least you got 9 chances so it was quite fun trying some different approaches and slowing down the shutter speed to create some different effects...

in our house we have followed the tour for years. the itv4 highlights at 7pm are family viewing for three weeks. it's one of the few times of the year that we take food and eat it in front of the tv rather than round the table. and now joel and harry are elsewehere, texts and tweets still make it somethng of a shared experience. i think it is without doubt the single most difficult sporting event on the planet. there are layers and complexities to it that i won't attempt to explain - sprints, time trials, mountain stages, teams, several jersey competitions - the easiest way to get into it is to decide to follow along one year. but to win it and the yellow jersey is simple to understand - you have to complete the whole tour the fastest overall.

when we started watching there had been the occasional british cyclist - chris boardman, david millar for example - who had won a stage, but we honestly could not imagine ever producing a tour winner. france, spain, italy, germany, australia, usa... seemed to know what it was about and have great traditions of cycling - but not britain! this is why bradley wiggins win is so extraordinary. there has been such a turnaround in british cycling in both men and women's racing. it's not been an overnight thing - it never could be. but bradley has come through time trialing, track cycling, and some hard lessons over the last 3 years of the tour. he has won world championships, gold medals and before the tour was already an extraordinary cyclist. but the tour is something else and it's been a huge effort on so many peoples part along with bradley who has dedicated himself to this goal. of course we also have other amazing men and women cyclists at the moment - mark cavendish, victoria pendleton, chris hoy to name a few and chris froome who has been a total revelation in this year's tour de france coming second - yes first and second (oh and cav winning three stages including the champs d'elysee for the fourth time and becoming the world's best sprinter ever!!!!).

it's a team event - and team sky have been incredible. there is a lot of moaning about them on twitter but i think it's only because they have become so strong. i personally think they have been fantastic. there have also been a lot of people who can't understand why chris froome hasn't challenged bradley wiggins (even more tiresome moaning on twitter). i have loved seeing chris froome looking so good and i really hope he will come back in another team and challenge for the tour himself next year. but he'll only be able to do that if he is the team leader and people work for him. he could have put some time into bradley in the mountains no doubt - a few seconds here and there. but i can't see any way with the team and bradley's incredible form and time trialing that he would have beaten brad this year. bradley wiggins is simply the greatest cyclist that britain has ever known and the greatest cyclist in the world right now. in the time trial on saturday he was beautiful, supreme, majestic, a world apart from his rivals. those that follow the tour will know that a gap of over 3 minutes to your next rival overall is huge. it's been won by a few seconds many times. bradley has carried the yellow jersey for about 15 days i think and he rides clean :)

bradley wiggins will surely be sports personality of the year as one of the greatest sportsmen britain has ever had and sideburns will definitely be back in fashion!!!

nic was involved on the scene in london in abundant, vaux, greenbelt, and even designed the grace logo way back when because we cheekily asked him to. he is creatively brilliant and has been an inspiration and role model in design and typography in particular for joel...

wonderful is the title of the final show of chelsea art college's graphic and design show. the work produced by students is quite amazing . they all have portfolios online here if you want to have a browse through movies, photo, fashion, type, web design, branding and so on.

the show was put together and curated by a group of the students. joel had two pieces in the show. one was an amazing 3d neon sign saying 'amen' which was part of a design for a poster campaign for the nightclub ministry of sound. set on a wooden stand in a perspex case it made me think that someone with some vision and space should buy it or get one made to be a communion table! it would look incredible...

his other piece is colloquy - his final project which is a web site of affective text - i.e. text that resonds to mood/emotion. go and try it out... and his portfolio is here. next step - the big wide world!

i'm heading up to scotland again at the end of june for solas festival which you may remember me blogging and enthusing about last year. the line up is growing. rory butler and adam stearns who i picked out last year as highlights are both back. harry baker (!) is performing, along with the likes of ricky ross. this year i am giving a couple of talks. maybe see you there?

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